Thanks for the update when Dennis became head of the regional crime team at Brotherton House he help us avoid some nasty confrontations with the National Frontone night he rang me and informed us that a group of the National Front were coming to Leeds from London. They never got to Leeds they were arrested at Wakefield atation and put back on a train to London. If you were Chapeltown who was chief inspector and what year out paths must of crossed

Hi friend1,

I worked at Chapeltown Police Station in 1973, and also from 1979 until 1983. I also worked in the area in 1975 and 1976 whilst serving in the Burglary Squad.

Prior to 1974, Chief Inspectors were few and far between and there were only 23 in the Leeds City Police upon amalgamation. Many of these posts were in administration or places such as the Prosecutions Department. In about the early 1970’s, there was consideration, at the Home Office, to the rank being abolished altogether but it never happened. However, I do remember at least one officer being promoted from Inspector to Superintendent and missing the rank. I think that Eric Walker (Moose) was one of them but I might be wrong.

So far as relates to your question about a Chief Inspector at Chapeltown Police Station in 1973, I am not sure, but I suspect that it was either Maurice Brayson or Terry Frazier. At that time, the post was in adminstration as there wasn’t an operational Chief Inspector.

Whilst I was there from 1979 to 1983, there were a few including Roy Sheard, Wally Cowman, Gillian Miles, Tony Goode and possibly Tony Horsfall.

So far as relates to Community Liaison/Affairs, during the late 1970’s, there was a Community Affairs Inspector and Sergeant at Chapeltown and I seem to remember Tom Tate, Geoff Ross, Tony Goode, Jane McGill and others doing the job at various times.

I knew one or two uniformed lads in the force and one of them was John Heap who lived in the Harlechs over Cross Flatts Park and it seemed he had a nose for passing my house in Beeston when there was tea on the go or bacon sandwiches being prepared. when uniform was going round with the so called Ripper tape on cassette i seem to get quite a few callers to let me listen to this Geordie accent just after the Kettle had boiled.

As it happens the weekend the Ripper was arrested I was in the Wheatsheaf Pub on Elland Road and quite a few C.I.D. lads used to gather in there Sunday nights and the word of his capture went round like wild fire.

Finding this thread has certainly brought back some memories for me and I'm resisting the temptation to rattle on at length.

It's hardly surprising that my experience overlapped that of others who have posted, especially iansmithofotley. eg I too knew the Bennetts. 3 Jim Bennett was in the front office/ enquiry counter when I was posted to Ireland Wood CID in 1972; we didn't have a CID clerk by then. When I went to Wortley in 1974, 931 Rodney Bennett was on my new shift.

I'll rein myself in and stick to some facts from the official history of Leeds Police which details the extent of the promotions through new posts being created in Leeds around the time of the introduction of Unit Beat Policing and "panda" cars.

jma wroteColonFinding this thread has certainly brought back some memories for me and I'm resisting the temptation to rattle on at length.

If it's your time or worrying about revealing things that perhaps shouldn't fine but if your reluctance to "rattle on" is more to do with the perception you may be boring us please rattle on. Those that are bored don't have to read your posts while others will be interested.

jma wroteColonFinding this thread has certainly brought back some memories for me and I'm resisting the temptation to rattle on at length.

If it's your time or worrying about revealing things that perhaps shouldn't fine but if your reluctance to "rattle on" is more to do with the perception you may be boring us please rattle on. Those that are bored don't have to read your posts while others will be interested.

I'm in total agreement tyke bhoy. This is a most interesting thread and I'm also amazed how a police officer's number can still be recalled by others very many years later.

I think somebody else has already explained that we remember them because they were often used instead of names. Also, since the tales we remember are generally about people we knew personally through work, their numbers tend to be just as memorable as other details about them. The longer ago something happened, the easier it is to remember: I can remember our Co-op number from my childhood 149491, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. (Incidentally, on looking through my earler posts to check I'm not repeating myself, I've noticed a glaring numbering error which I have corrected. Like getting the year of the Coronation wrong, it's just a silly mistake, not a lapse of memory. Evry fule kno that 522 was Martin Pennock.

Bearing in mind that numbers displayed on the uniform are intended to help members of the public identify police officers, it's surprising how rarely numbers seem to be taken. I only remember somebody writing in with my number once and they got it wrong, even though it was a letter of thanks.

There used to be a young lad who had a thing about prams and in the days when women often left them in the entrances of department stores, he regularly took one and walked home with it. One Saturday afternoon he was passing the nick on Dewsbury Road complete with pram: an easy catch. It was only a matter of time before we got the call from Millgarth to say they had a lady with toddler but minus pram at the counter. The sergeant 492 "Inky" Dennis Blackwell, dispatched me to town with the pram and with instructions to take her home if she needed a lift. (Not easy to get a pram in a Vauxhall Viva but where there's a will ....) The lady was over the moon that we had recovered her pram before she had realised it had gone and by the time I had taken a statement, time was ticking on, toddler getting tired etc. She lived in Knaresboro so I followed the last instruction. Some time later, her letter of thanks arrived, having done the rounds because she had referred to PC 125 and the owner of that number Mick Shires hadn't been near Knaresboro. To save readers looking back, my number was 153. Derek "Big Red" Holmes, the superintendent at Wortley was covering at Dewsbury Road. Dennis wasn't on my shift, but he later told me how worried he had been when he was called in, only to be praised for sensible, practical policing and having had the good sense and initiative to send me so far out of the city etc. This may all seem natural to a modern reader but in those days, it could just as easily have been fist banging down on the desk and "Do you think we are running a taxi service, mister?"

The next time was when I was a sergeant at Wortley. I was in the office when I was called out to an incident that needed a bit of supervision and as it was pouring down I grabbed my mac. It involved an angry motorist who got even angrier when I told him that the officer was dealing with him correctly. He very ostentatiously took my number as 76. Thinking "I'm not Phil Huntington" I realised I'd grabbed the wrong mac, and peeled it back to reveal the epaulettes on my own jacket. He must have thought better of it because I never heard any more about it.

The next time after that I was a recently promoted inspector walking down Calverley Street past the LGI to give evidence in the Crown Court which used to sit in the Town Hall. A rather officious chap caught up with me to report he was having some sort of trouble with a parking meter. I tried unsuccessfully to explain that parking meters in Leeds were operated by Leeds City Council, not the police, and that he needed one of the meter attendants in brown uniforms: there were plenty about. He was very obviously looking for my number, which inspectors didn't have so I was more than happy to give him my name before I dashed off to keep my appointment with the judge. Another bit of life's tapestry that I never heard of again.

There used to be some humour attached to numbers. Somebody has mentioned PC 4 Gott earlier in the thread, but there were others such as 29 Dennis Middleton who copped for the same number as one of the bus routes to that part of Leeds 10. At my initial training course, the inspector was James Walter Bass (always introducing himself with his full name.) We had a lad from Lincolnshire, whose name I haven't a clue, but his number was 77. JWB suddenly shouted "Trombones" which threw us all. After more agitated shouts of "trombones" he asked if we had never heard tha song. I don't know if Phil Hunty (see above) ever had that nickname back in Leeds, but nobody dared tell James Walter Bass that there were only 76 trombones in the big parade. PC Bond (whose first name I do not know, joined just as the numbers above 999 were being issued, so it was inevitable he became 1007 Bond. The story was that his mum then complained so they gave him 1000, which they had been keeping for a special occasion. 1007 went to Martin Sykes who was working post-retirement as a civilian inquiry desk person when I went into Holbeck a couple of years ago with some found property.

Changing tack, the late WPC Fletcher was mentioned early in this thread. Metropolitan Police officers are given a "warrant number" at enrolment which they retain throughout their service. It's a unique serial number. The number displayed on their uniform under their divisional letter(s) changes if they are posted to another division.